HAVES VS. HAVE-NOTS MAY LEAD TO CHANGE

LAS VEGAS 
The gulf between college football’s 1 percent and the proletariat is widening. In recent weeks, several of the top power brokers in the sport have proclaimed that it might be time for some major restructuring.

Big 12 Conference Commissioner Bob Bowlsby said Monday that it might be time to consider a model in which the five major conferences (Pac-12, SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 and ACC) would form their own “federation” within the NCAA — because it’s no longer practical for football programs with million-dollar budgets to be governed by the same rules as programs with budgets of more than $100 million.

Tuesday afternoon, Mountain West Commissioner Craig Thompson said he agreed with Bowlsby, but played down the idea that the “Big 5” might be considering a secession from the NCAA.

“If you read carefully, what they are saying is that there needs to be transformative change. Field hockey cannot be treated like football,” Thompson said, adding that he does not think the top 70 programs in the Football Bowl Subdivision will break away from the rest of the football-playing schools any time soon.

“It might happen; I don’t think it will happen,” Thompson said. “I think there will be a different solution for those people. If they want to give (student-athletes) cost-of-attendance stipends, we should allow them to do that. It’s not going to affect the way we perform and play.”

MW in playoff?

Does the new College Football Playoff that will begin in 2014 really give the Mountain West better access to big-money bowls than it currently has with the BCS system?

Thompson and most of the league’s coaches believe the answer is yes.

“In the college football playoff, we have better access than what we have now. Now, we have to meet a very stringent mark to qualify for the BCS bowls — top 12 or better,” Thompson said.

The new system features a total of seven games, including the two semifinals and the title game. The other four games are called “access bowls,” and they’ll be prestigious affairs reminiscent of the former BCS bowls.

One champion from the “gang of five” conferences — Mountain West, Sun Belt, American Athletic, Conference USA and Mid-American — is guaranteed a bid to one of the new access bowls.

“We will have a 10-2 Mountain West champion playing in a host bowl in this cycle,” Thompson said. “You don’t have to be perfect.”

No expansion on horizon

Thompson said the Mountain West is comfortable with its 12-team, two-division configuration.

“I would say we will be at 12 for years to come,” he said.

Thompson, though, added that the conference would be open to a discussion with BYU if the former MW school — now an independent in football — expressed an interest in returning.

Sixth bowl

The Mountain West will end its agreement with the Armed Forces Bowl in 2014.

But Thompson said the conference wants a sixth bowl, and the plan is to rotate among several bowls in the Southeast over the next six years. The Independence Bowl (Shreveport, La.), the New Orleans Bowl or a new bowl in Montgomery, Ala., could be part of that mix.